Political Violence Surges Because Politics Matter Too Much
We’ve made government so powerful that people will fight rather than surrender control to the enemy.
As should be obvious to anybody following news about riots, assassinations, and arson attacks, politics have become far too important in America. With government large, growing, and reaching into every nook and cranny of our lives, Americans perceive politics as too much of a high-stakes game to lose. And so, they have divided into hostile camps to make sure their side comes out on top—and some turn ideological conflict into literal war.
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A Surge in Political Violence
That point came home to me after Israel launched its preemptive attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. My wife's rabbi (she's Jewish and I'm not) called me and asked if I was willing to work security during services on Saturday. "No Kings" protests were planned across the country for the day, with the potential to turn nasty at the hands of people who insist anybody wearing a Star of David bears responsibility for the Israeli government's actions. Tensions were already high after the Molotov cocktail attack on Jews in Boulder, the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's official residence on the first night of Passover.
So, I spent much of Saturday standing in front of the synagogue, wearing a ballistic vest, with a pistol holstered on one hip and pepper spray on the other.
Underlining the point was that two Minnesota state lawmakers were targeted by an assassin the same Saturday—fatally in the case of one legislator and her husband. The day's protests were predominantly, but not entirely, peaceful. That's better than we've seen at recent protests against immigration enforcement that turned violent in Los Angeles and Portland, and at some pro-Palestine demonstrations.
That's all recent. If we go back in time just a little, there's the bombing of a fertility clinic by an "anti-natalist"; attacks on Tesla cars, dealerships, chargers, and owners by people opposed to Elon Musk's temporary role in the Trump administration; and, notably, the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. The alleged assassin, Luigi Mangione, has become something of a celebrity.
"Targeted violence is becoming normalized online and in the real world," warned a December 2024 report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, affiliated with Rutgers University. "Memes, viral content, gamification and the lionization of Luigi Mangione are constructing frameworks that endorse and legitimize violence, encouraging harassment and further acts of violence against corporate figures."
The report added that "the spread and scope of justifications for murder have significantly eroded what was once a barrier between mainstream society and fringe online communities that supported violence and glorified killers."
Political Identity Outweighs All Other Social Identities
It's alarming, but not surprising, that Americans are living in a world of self-reinforcing justifications for engaging in violence to achieve some sort of gain—especially for political and ideological goals.
A study published in February in Political Psychology reported that "political identity outweighs all other social identities in informing citizens' attitudes and projected behaviors towards others." The results echoed those from similar research from Stanford University in 2017 which found that "the strongest attachment…is Americans' connection to their political party. And the strength of that partisan bond – stronger than race, religion or ethnicity – has amplified the level of political polarization in the U.S."
Religion, race, social class—none of that matters so much as political identity. And, according to the Political Psychology study, "out-group animosity is stronger than in-group sentiment," meaning anger at perceived enemies is the driving factor in how we express our partisan affiliations.
That anger can only increase when government officials use their position to torment those across the political divide. As it is, after years of a metastasizing state, Americans must go hat-in-hand to officialdom to request permission to take licensed jobs, renovate homes, open businesses, and so much more. That creates vulnerabilities among people who live their lives at the pleasure of an overpowerful government and the creatures who control its instruments. Without explicitly exercising censorship or invoking the apparatus of authoritarianism, it's all too easy for bureaucrats, prosecutors, and regulators to hurt those they don't like.
Democrats and the Biden administration infamously leaned on social media companies to muzzle critics, engaged in obviously politicized prosecutions of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, and applied regulatory pressure on banks to deny financial services to opponents.
Once back in office, Republicans and Trump in turn unleashed regulators on the opposition press, suspended the security clearances of law firms associated with the Democratic Party, and targeted elite universities dominated by lefty politics.
The More People Support Political Violence, the More We Get
They all carry on cheered by partisan mobs who largely live in information bubbles where members of opposing tribes are vilified as enemies deserving of everything that happens to them. To too many people, their opponents are "garbage" or "enemies of the people,"
"Today's political violence is occurring across the political spectrum—and there is a corresponding rise in public support for it on both the right and the left," Robert A. Pape, director of the University of Chicago's Chicago Project on Security and Threats, wrote last week.
According to Pape, his organization's May survey revealed that roughly 40 percent of Democrats support forcibly removing Trump from the presidency, and about 25 percent of Republicans favor using the military against anti-Trump protesters.
Pape adds, "these surveys are telling because, as other research has shown, the more public support there is for political violence, the more common it is."
Pundits propose to calm violence with anodyne bipartisan statements and conversations across political lines. That's fine and dandy. But so long as government remains such a powerful and destructive force, political tensions will rise over how that power should be used—and against whom. People may finally set differences aside—or at least fewer will violently act on them—when they see less reason for battle. While it won't necessarily soothe bigots and loons, government and politics should matter less.
Until then, I'll keep my vest, pepper spray, and pistol handy. I'm all too likely to need them.
